Effects of Micro-Solvation on Room Temperature Ionic Liquids

Golden, Joseph Wellington
(2013)
Effects of Micro-Solvation on Room Temperature Ionic Liquids.
Undergraduate thesis,
under the direction of Nathan Hammer from
Chemistry and Biochemistry,
The University of Mississippi.

Abstract

Room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) have received much attention lately. These compounds are made completely of ions and are liquid at or near room temperature. These liquid salts have a number of unique properties that make them an interesting system to study. These properties include almost zero vapor pressure, thermal stability, large liquidus range, etc. Due to these properties and others, ionic liquids (ILs) have attracted much attention in the emerging field of green chemistry as potentially new solvents for many of the hazardous and volatile solvents currently in use. Moreover, the complex interactions of the anion and cation systems of the room temperature ionic liquids have been shown to participate in hydrogen bonding, and the addition of hydrogen bonding compounds (i.e. water, methanol, etc.) have been reported to alter many of the properties of ILs. Many ionic liquids are hygroscopic by nature so the addition of water to the system can occur readily from the atmosphere. Thus, the study of the effects of water or other solvents on the microscopic nature of the RTILs is of importance since it can affect many of the bulk properties of the RTILs. In this thesis, we explored the complex intermolecular interactions through the use of spectral data via Raman spectroscopy and computational data of the RTILs of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide, 1-(1-butyl)-1-methylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoro- methanesulfonyl)imide, and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium dicyanamide.